Deputy sheds light on 1959 homicide

Saturday

Feb 23, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 23, 2013 at 11:09 PM

The 1959 homicide of Dr. Hanson Dupont is confirmed in microfilmed newspapers from December of that year. Nelia Anderson Pitre’s emailed inquiry also turned up readers who had been patients of the doctor, who recalled the case had been featured in a national detective magazine, or relatives of Terrebonne sheriff’s deputies who investigated the case.

Bill EllzeyColumnist

The 1959 homicide of Dr. Hanson Dupont is confirmed in microfilmed newspapers from December of that year. Nelia Anderson Pitre’s emailed inquiry also turned up readers who had been patients of the doctor, who recalled the case had been featured in a national detective magazine, or relatives of Terrebonne sheriff’s deputies who investigated the case.Briefly, Dupont’s badly beaten corpse was found Dec. 12, 1959, outside a Bayou Cane business, with a suspect arrested a few days later.Brent Favalora, currently a Terrebonne sheriff’s deputy, says his father, working with then-deputy Charlton Rozands, arrested an AWOL soldier who admitted his part in the crime. Favalora has offered his late father’s clippings of the case. With those old records in hand, it will be possible to publish a more complete account of the crime that resulted in the 1959 Houma Courier/Terrebonne Press publishing a rare special edition. Soon.Swamp eagles: The excerpt from Darryl DiMaggio Sr.’s book about the coastal Louisiana float planes serving the local “oil patch,” found a reader in St. Tammany Parish.“Read your article on Darryl DiMaggio Sr. I live in Slidell and cannot find his book online. Any ideas how I could purchase a copy?” emailed Jay Strahan, nobra3838@gmail.com.I think Dimaggio himself will answer Strahan’s question.Little theater: Enjoyed opening night of “Secondary Cause of Death” Thursday at Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne, and marveled at how Joel Waldron kept his lines straight, or as you will see, appropriately garbled, throughout.It’s a murder-mystery, of sorts, with so many of the cast becoming victims that toward the end, playgoers might easily think the mayhem could spread to the audience.The play runs through March 3 at the theater, 7829 Main St., Houma. For reservations, call 876-4278 or visit houmalittletheatre.com.Tryouts: Le Petit’s next production is “Rounding Third,” about the conflicting philosophies of a pair of Little League coaches. The cast requires two men. Auditions are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 4 and 5 at the theater.Bourgeois raffle: Chances ($5) to win one of late Terrebonne artist Allen P. Bourgeois’ classic oil paintings are available at each production. Bourgeois’ family has donated the paintings for a theater-renovation fundraiser.Octavia Albert: Email exchanges with Henry Wicker, a great-great-grandson of the author of “House of Bondage,” a collection of slave interviews written in Houma in the 1880s, promises to yield information about the contributions of Octavia and her minister husband “A.E.P.” to the early racial equality movement. Later.Terrebonne queens? The Terrebonne Livestock and Agricultural Fair Association wants to invite its past rodeo queens to its upcoming March rodeo at the Houma Airbase Arena.Tony Stein said the association was formed in the late 1940s, so it is possible that the list of queens goes back that far, but considering so many names have been changed by marriage, locating them is difficult.Stein said the past royalty will be presented to those attending the March 23 rodeo.Queens should contact Stein at 449-7598 or atonystein@att.net. If you know of a rodeo queen no longer residing locally, let her know how to contact Stein.